Transport and Infrastructure CS Kipchumba Murkomen/Nation
Transport and Infrastructure Caninet Secretary Kipchuma Murkomen has made public details of the contract between Kenya and China pertaining the Standard Guage Railway, the most expensive project in the hostiry of Kenya.
The details have revealed that SGR contract, signed by former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Li Ruogu, the President of the Export and Import (Exim) Bank of China, gives sweeping power to its Chinese lenmders including that any arbitration disputes to be held in Beijing.
Kenya was locked into a secret and confidential deal on the contract details, the reason why former President Uhuru Kenyatta rejected the court’s order to make them public.
However, details claiming that the Port of Mombasa and other assets of the Kenya Ports Authority were missing, but documents shared by Murkomen revealed that Chin was to lend Kenya Sh190.77 billion at current exchange rates at 2 percent interest per annum, and that a management fee of Sh476 million was paid 30 days after the signing of the contract.
The SGR deal as reveled in the contract is a 20-year loan with a seven-year grace period and was to be repaid in 156 months (13 years).
Kenya was to dedicate 42.06 percent of the proceeds from the railway to repay the loan.
Fearfully, the contract details that any dispute arising would only be determined in Beijing and nowhere else.
Kenya was also bound to establish an inland container depot in Nairobi “and its mandatory customs clearance” as well as a Railway Development Fund.
China said the port should be established “to be applied in priority to make repayment of loans in relation to the project”.
The contract went further to demand that Kenya first approaches China to purchase any goods from the proceeds of SGR, before going to any other market.
“The Borrower shall keep all the terms and conditions hereunder in connections with this Agreement strictly confidential. Without the prior written consent of the Lender, the Borrower shall not disclose any information hereunder or in connection with this Agreement to any third party unless required by applicable law,” the deal reads.
Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen has promised to make the details of the contract public, saying Kenyans had the right to know what the government had signed on their behalf.
Sam Oduor is the editor-in-chief at the Western Kenya Times who leverages the power of the Internet in telling stories that shape opinions.
